Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter

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Thursday, 4 October 2012

Emma TransMORGrifier

Info about the original pedal:

A compressor pedal incorporating the best attributes of classic pedals while simultaneously eliminating the shortcomings common to such vintage designs.

Included are controls for the adjustment of Attack, Release, and Ratio that allow the user precise and continuous variation to their sound. These controls offer the ability to custom tailor the effect to match the job at hand. No matter what style or instrument, the perfect amount of compression is easily dialed in with minimal coloration to the original signal.

Note:The CA3080 is a discontinued IC, and although it is still available from a number of sources it will get more difficult to obtain as time goes by. After the discussions below, the circuit was tested by G5120fx with an LM13700 replacing the discontinued IC and it worked fine. Unfortunately this IC is 16 pin instead of 8 because it is 2 channel and includes buffers, but if you find that you can get the LM13700 cheaper or more readily then you can use the following daughterboard to allow you to use that IC. Just solder the wires to where the CA3080 pins would be on the main board.

This daughterboard can be used with any of the effects in this blog which use the CA3080, including the MXR DynaComp, Ross Compressor and Keeley Compressor.

41 comments:

Damn those 3080s are expensive. I know.. Like in this case, the price is always subjective. I've read around, and seems that last manufacturer stopped making these OTAs (operational transconductance amplifiers) in 2005. There seems to be plenty around, but as they have been obsolete for 7 years the price is high. And it's not hard to understand why.

If people are interested in sourcing those, check Polida and goodbuy711 on ebay. Just grabbed me a bunch of these and i hope they will be all i need for cloning compressors for the rest of my life. One thing's for sure. Obsolete components aren't getting cheaper by time - unless some company starts to make modern equilevant.. And that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Anyway. There seems to be no equilevant available or in sight. (ok, there is NTE996, but those cost around 5-8 times what you need to pay for original CA3080) Most forums i've read, state that using half of LM13700 could be viable alternative. So this brings me to my question :) Mark.. Have you though about creating layout for Ross/Dyna/Keeley 4Knob or this one with half LM13700? That would be sick circuit :)+m

Yes you could use an LM13700, it's basically just two CA3080 type OTA's and also includes buffers on separate pins, but you could just ignore the extras. The only reason I haven't bothered is there's not a lot of difference in price if you buy from Polida, and I'd need to accomodate a 16pin IC instead of 8 which would make the layout bigger.

how many did you get miro? Ooi must build this one, have a few 3080 laying around, was meant to be used for the keeley compressor, this looks more interesting for some reason! and thanks mark, you're the man as always!

Just a few 10 packs and i still have a few from my previous orders. I just figured that i won't be doing mods to dyna/ross and sell it as my own, so 22 should be enough for cloning the existing ones :)+m

I made this verbatim to the layout with no subs. Works. Controls feel weird, because i'm used to seeing attack and release on synth amp envelopes and obviously those controls aren't working here as they do on synths :) Is release really 500K? That control puzzles me the most, as it is very subtle when compared to attack. Attack and Ratio maxed this one goes really wobbly. That's not a bad thing. Very usable thing this here.

Pretty versatile compressor. With it's nearly massive output capabilities, it could be used just as a clean boost too.+m

Brilliant. And yes it is a 500K in the scheme. That replaces a 150K resistor that was between Q3 and Q4 collectors and supply in the Dyna Comp, so it may have been selected so it's middle value (ish) reflected that. Maybe a 250K would be more suitable.

Not too sure, even if you'd put them in the wrong way I wouldn't expect anything as drastic as that, it just wouldn't work. I suspect you'll have a short or thesupply connected somewhere that it shouldn't

i'll be able to answer that pretty soon. i just finished the Keeley 4 knobber today and it's great. i also built the Rothwell Love Squeeze and the Armstrong Orange squeezer and all of them have been really nice sounding comps, with the Keeley being the most flexible.

i just finished building and testing it (it worked perfect straight away-YAY!) and IMO, it's an awesome compressor. IMO, it's a bit more 'hi-fi' sounding than the Keeley. in a way, it kinda reminds me of a dbx 160, only in pedal form.

Hi all.I have no BC549C's. I have bc109,bc184Lc,bc327, bc337, bc546b,and last but not least...bc550's anybody got a goob for the 549charlies? I have a lot of 1n'..s, 2n..'s mps.., bs.., j......NO 549C..UGH!!! Any help would be kindly appreciated.jeff

hey bro. you actually don't have to do much to make this work on bass. all i did was change the 10nF input to 100nF and you're good to go. no low end loss. so far my favorite compressor. can be clean or get a sorta SVT with a hint of breakup.

Note

Not all these layouts are verified and some are put together from unverified schematics. So if you have good luck, or bad luck for that matter, then please let me know by dropping a comment in the topic. Thanks.

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